The Express-Star (Chickasha, Okla.), Ed. 1 Sunday, January 8, 2006 Page: 4 of 40
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Enid News & Eagle: On school consolidation
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By Kent Bi
[uSA]
LETTER to
the EDITOR
Gumm, D-Durant, has proposed a mea-
sure that would amend the states constitu-
tion to put the power to consolidate rural
districts solely in the hands of local voters.
Gumms Senate Joint Resolution 35 would
solidate services with nearby districts,
whenever possible.
If the Legislature is to be involved in
school consolidation at all, it might be to
provide incentives for districts whose
patrons decide consolidation might be the
best course of action.
ity of voters in each of the affected school
districts.
Our local lawmakers, Rep. Curt Rog-
gow, R-Kremlin, Sen. Patrick Anderson,
R-Enid and Rep. Mike Jackson, R-Enid,
all agree, though Anderson called Gumms
proposal a political stunt....
In small communities, much of life
centers around two institutions the school
and the churches.
Sometimes it becomes no longer feasi-
ble for small rural schools to remain inde-
4A
Sunday,
January 8, 2006
WHAT'S THE BID
AT TO SUCCESSFULLY
LOBBY OUR
CONGRESSMAN?
By Jerry Pittman
Express-Star
Publisher
viewpoint
i Y. L •
although the communities often sutler a
loss of local identity. The decision about
whether or not to consolidate should
remain the decision of rural school
patrons, not some state official.
To assure forced school consolidation
will never happen, state Sen. Jay Paul
TIT
SORRY, BUT YOULL
WAVE TO GET USED
TOT BAK THERE
UNTIL WE CATCH
THE TERRORISTS
pendent, so they consolidate with schools give Oklahoma voters a chance to amend schools that might be struggling with
from nearby towns. In most cases w > cgnssitution to prohibit any school dwindling enrollment and a resulting loss
uI ons result in stronger school distriets,. consolidation unless approved by a major-
By ED MONTGOMERY
__________CNHI News Service
NORMAN, Okla. — In 1906. a century
ago, the last additions were made to the
Oklahoma Territory in preparation for state-
hood.
If the methods used to annex those lands
had been used for the first ones settled this
would not be the Sooner State because there
would have been no Sooners.
The first opening of Indian Territory land
to homesteaders on April 22. 1889, led to the
settlement of six counties. With the Panhan-
dle added as the seventh, the Oklahoma Ter-
ritory was organized in May 1890.
Openings in 1891, ’92, ’93 and ’95 fol-
lowed the horse race model established in
the ’89er run. Although some attempts at
reform were made the Sooner problem was
never solved. It may have been worse in the
huge Cherokee Strip run of 1893 than any of
the others.
All that time Old Greer County, southwest
tip of what is now Oklahoma, belonged to
the Indian Territory but nobody had proved
it. The boundary with Texas was the main
channel of the Red River, but a bad survey
established the north fork of the stream as
the main channel. The land between the two
branches had been organized as Gteer oun-
ty, Texas. In 1896 the U.S. Supreme Court
corrected the error, and Greer Couty, Okla-
homa Territory, was born.
By then the vast Wichita-Caddo and
Kiowa-Comanche lands were the last major
area in the western Indian Territory not avail-
able to homesteaders, the University of
Oklahoma historian E.E. Dale wrote in a
1949 textbook.
“The disorder and lawless conditions that
had developed made officials of the United
States believe that some better plan could be
found for settling Indian lands,” Dale wrote.
In 1901 the reservation land was divided
into two sections, and lotteries were held at
El Reno and Lawton.
HAHLER
-.Me OLUMGVS DISEATCH •
2005.
Reporters are only as fW”*’
good as their sources
a [ ea
ke3
handled the story if it had
broken on my cycle. Given
that the Associated Press had
attributed the report to the
West Virginia governor and
he had been the one giving
regular updates for two days
on the rescue efforts, my
answer was that I would
have had no problems going
with the story.
I posed the same question
Friday to The Express-Star
editor. He, too, would have
run the wire story that said
the men had survived if he
had to make a decision on
deadline. He said he proba-
bly would have hedged a lit-
tle on the headline, using
something like “Miners
reported to be found alive,”
stopping short of declaring it
a miracle until the miners
had been brought to the sur-
face and had been seen alive.
That's how many morning
newspapers handled it.
A reporter is only as good
has his sources.
In this case, tragically for
the families, the sources
were credible but the infor-
mation they provided was
not.
Media critics are throw-
ing up smokescreens - a kill
the messenger type of attack,
if you will - instead of con-
centrating on what led the
governor and others to pro-
vide this erroneous informa-
tion to reporters.
Who gave them the bad
information? Why did it take
three hours or more before
the truth was learned and/or
announced?
Washington Post editor
Len Downie, as quoted in
USA Today, put what
occurred into the proper con-
text. I believe.
"The story (that The Post
and others printed) was a
reflection of what was being
said at the time. I don't
regard it as our error, but an
error by the people in charge
of the rescue.”
Jerry Pittman is publish-
er of The Express-Star.
You can e-mail him a
jpittman @cnhi. com
To the editor,
I am pleased to say that
after many trips through
Oklahoma and a lot of
states, that my wife and I
like Chickasha the best.
People are not afraid to talk
to newcomers to the area, the
police forces of the state, coun-
ty and city level were very
helpful along our trip across the
state, and with this, we have
chosen to look into moving to
Chickasha. I would like to
thank personally the employ-
ees of DunnV’s for remaining
open past closing time, while
we were shopping for things
not found in Michigan.
They were very freindly,
serving their customers until
the customer was finished,
not the other way around like
people do up here. I would
like to thank my friends from
Chickasha I met online,
Rebecca and Joanne for their
help about learning more
about the town. I cant wait to
call Grady county my home.
Thanks, and see you all soon.
Tim Toney,
Fulton, Ml
The Ex-
press-Star
welcomes
letters from
our readers
make this space available to as
wife' s poss ible brief letters
‘are , erred Lett 'I never be
' more than 500 words serves the
iright to condense or reject any letter
Unsigned letters will not be published
Write to' fine Express-Slar,
PO. Drawer E, Chickasha,
OK, 73023 or email them to
editor@chickashanews.com
Good
decisions
keep you
from being
trapped
tn amyepevpnotissd
complain about entrapment
Last additions to territory made in 1906 arppehe ones who 8et
So many people in the
(ver 16 years, the Oklahoma news for different violations
•Territory had grown from lately are exchanging the
the original seven counties to idea that they were “set up"
26 counties with almost as with the idea that they are
much area as the state of Ohio nowgntasgniylcast some
From a little more than 50,000 When the Grady County
population in 1890 it had grown sheriff’s office sent a 20-
to by the end of 1906 to year old around to 21 differ-
800 000 ent alcohol retailers trying to
’ ___________________________________ buy alcohol, several of the
13 who violated the law and
"The lottery was a new method of opening sold to the underage infor-
land to settlement," Dale said, "but it proved mant claimed to have been
fairly successful ... Within less than a year, entrapped.
almost every 160-acre farm in the entire Entrapment is when the
region was occupied by a family that expect- police illegally induce a per-
ed to make it their home.” son into committing a crime.
An area called "The Big Pasture Lands" Officers are. however.
was held out of the lottery. It was cut up into allowed to present you with
160-acre tracts that were sold at auction to the opportunity to violate
bidders eligible to claim homesteads who the law.
agreed to settle and live on their land. If you take the bait, it
The Osage and Kaw tribes had managed isn’t their fault.
to get ownership of their lands in fee simple, Everyone in those stores
which meant they did not have to accept could have refused to sell
allotments and leave the surplus for settlers, alcohol to the 20-year old. It
Each tribe divided its land equally among its they had been following
enrolled members. store policy - and the law -
Each Osage got 500 acres while members they wouldhave.
of other tribes usually got allotments of 160 Bad decisions lead to bad
acres or less. The Osages also kept their min- circumstances. |(
eral rights in common, and their oil revenue A prominent out ern
made them among the richest people in the aptist pastor recently
.. _ . ., r reported that he was set up
world for a while. reI „n___ ii„
Over 16 years. Dale wrote, the Oklahoma propolicsonden undercover
Territory had grown from the original seven male officer in the parking
counties to 26 counties with almost as much lot of an Oklahoma City
area as the state of Ohio. hotel known as a haven of
From a little more than 50,000 population homosexual activity.
in 1890 it had grown to by the end of 1906 to I would like to believe
800,000. that, in the same circum-
And before the end of the following year it stances, other pastors would
would be a part of the 46th state in the Union. not have been arrested.
Ed Montgomery writes for Because, even if presented
the Norman (Okla.) Transcript. with the opportunity, they
wouldn't have made any
illicit offers.
The pastor has since
resigned all of his positions
both in his church and the
statewide association. Be
sure, his sin seems to have
found him out.
People get mad about the
most basic things. I have dri-
ven through Verden four
times in two days. On three
of those trips through town,
I have seen the police offi-
cers either poised to stop a
speeding motorist or with
one already pulled over.
Is it a speed trap? Proba-
bly.
But they didn’t pull me
over. I know better than to
speed through Verden. The
only ones caught are those
who disobey the posted
speed limits.
The only ones complain-
ing about the speed traps are
those who get caught in
them.
A common adage says
guilt is like a warning light
on the dashboard of the car.
When it comes on, you
can either take your car to a
mechanic and deal with the
problem or break out the
Political stunt or no, the intent of light and pretend there isn’t
Gumms bill is good. Nobody should be a problem.
able to decide the fate of small rural 1 ,s easy to blame some-
schools but the local school patrons them- one else or make excuses
selves. However, we also would urge rural when you get caught doing
• • • ■■ 1 wrong.
i People who caught in
of funding to seek ways to possibly con- these “traps" need to learn
their lessons and start play-
ing by the rules.
We’ll all be better off.
Kent Bush is editor of
The Express-Star.
You can e-mail him a
kwbush@cnhi.com
It was one of those stories
that keeps you glued to the
televsion, keeping you up
way past bedtime.
I finally went to sleep at
about 1:15 Wednesday
morning believing that 12 of
the 13 West Virginia coal
miners who had been
trapped far below the earth's
surface for almost two days
miraculously had been found
alive.
When I got up about six
hours later. I turned on the
television eager to hear more
details about the “miracle”
only to learn that a lone
miner had survived. Oh my.
My first thoughts were
"how badly those families
must feel and how could this
have happened?”
And. then I thought how
glad I was The Express-Star
is an afternoon newspaper
and wasn't among the dozens
of morning newspapers that
erroneously reported that the
12 miners had survived.
It's still not clear how the
miscommunication occurred
that turned euphoria into
•" sickening despair.
Perhaps the media was
caught up in the ebullience
of the moment and failed to
get sufficient attribution.
Critics say that television
and newspaper reporters
were quoting various gov-
ernmental officials, mining
industry executives and fam-
ily members but never had
"official" confirmation.
But what constitutes offi-
cial?
At various points during a
frantic two or three hour
period, the governor of West
Virginia, a high-ranking
mining company executive
and at least one mining
industry spokesmen had
given statements in public
forums or in response to
questions that the 12 men
had survived, referring to it
as a miracle and giving such
details that "some" of them
needed medical attention
and outlined where they
would be taken for treat-
ment. More than a few fami-
lies confirmed that was what
they had been told.
We now know that none
of it was true,
I was at a meeting of
newspaper publishers later
in the day and a colleague
asked how I would have
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Bush, Kent. The Express-Star (Chickasha, Okla.), Ed. 1 Sunday, January 8, 2006, newspaper, January 8, 2006; Chickasha, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1887308/m1/4/: accessed July 16, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.